Add-on offers machine-gun-like firepower

Updated 1:39 pm, Thursday, January 31, 2013

For gun enthusiasts, the Slide Stock is an exciting add-on that enables shooters to unleash bursts of machine-gun-like fire from semi-automatic weapons.

Online videos show exultant gun owners spraying targets, including ones depicting zombies, with what appears to be fully automatic fire at rates of 400 rounds per minute or better.

On its website, the Slide Stock's manufacturer, Slide Fire Solutions Inc. of Moran, Texas, tells its prospective customers: "Prepare to change the way you play." For Slide Fire Solutions, the sweetest part may be that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in 2010 said the Slide Stock is perfectly legal under current law.

But for gun control advocates, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., bumpfire devices, as they are known generically, are a nightmare waiting to happen.

Rounds per minute

"With practice, a shooter can control his rate of fire from 400 to 800 rounds per minute," Feinstein said on Wednesday, speaking at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on guns. With such devices, she said, mass shooters gain "tremendous killing power" that can "tear young bodies apart."

Along with other Democratic lawmakers, Feinstein introduced an updated assault weapons ban last week in response to the Newtown, Conn., shootings. In addition to 157 named assault weapons, Feinstein's measure specifically outlaws bumpfire stocks.

Photo: Charlie Jacoby

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A man tries out the Slide Fire system at the SHOT Show in 2012. The flexible bridge between stock and mainframe works to keep it firing round after round.

A man tries out the Slide Fire system at the SHOT Show in 2012. The flexible bridge between stock and mainframe works to keep it firing round after round.

Photo: Charlie Jacoby

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Slide Fire Solutions Inc., headquarters is located in Moran, Texas. The company designs and develops bump fire stock that fits to semi-automatic rifles including the AR15 and AK47. Chief Executive Manager Laura Shackelford said the design of the product allows for a person to have more control over shooting a firearm. "We can't say what lawmakers will do, we feel like our product is a safe way to bump fire," Shackelford said. Joy Lewis/Abilene Reporter-News

Slide Fire Solutions Inc., headquarters is located in Moran, Texas. The company designs and develops bump fire stock that fits to semi-automatic rifles including the AR15 and AK47. Chief Executive Manager Laura

"Fully automatic weapons are illegal, and I strongly believe that devices allowing shooters to fire at similar rates should also be outlawed," Feinstein said in a statement.

For Steve Sposato of Lafayette, such devices are a nightmare that happened.

Gian Luigi Ferri used an earlier incarnation of bumpfire, the Hellfire trigger, on the Tec-9 semiautomatic pistols he fired during the July 1, 1993, shooting rampage at 101 California St. in San Francisco. Among the eight people murdered that day was Sposato's wife, Jody Jones-Sposato.

"These devices have no purpose at all in our society, period, end of story," Sposato said. "People think it's fun, but people think it's fun to throw grenades, and they're illegal. Trade-offs have to be made."

Sposato called manufacturers of these products "dirtbags out to make a buck, and they don't care who gets hurt."

David Koresh, the Branch Davidian cult leader in Waco, Texas, told law enforcement authorities that he used Hellfire triggers on semi-automatic weapons, according to "No More Wacos," a 1995 book by gun-rights advocate David Kopel. Koresh and his followers killed four ATF agents during a 1993 raid before setting their compound ablaze during a subsequent FBI assault. At least 74 people died, including 25 children.

Gun manufacturers and users have long been fascinated with machine guns, which turned traditional warfare on its head when used to devastating effect in World War I. Prohibition-era gangsters' use of the "Tommy gun," which shot 875 rounds a minute or more, prompted Congress in 1934 to pass the National Firearms Act, placing stiff federal registration and taxation requirements on machine gun possession.

ATF officials were not able to provide exact numbers on how many devices have been submitted for classification. Kingery said that in seven years he's reviewed 10-12 such items.

All such devices, whatever their properties, are illegal in California.

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